Eric Dier Hoping Tottenham Takes Advantage of Heavy Home Schedule
A favorable schedule till the end of the season sees Tottenham play at White Hart Lane for eight out of 12 matches (when you include London tilts with Crystal Palace and West Ham).
A few days ago, Ryan Wrenn took a look at Tottenham’s remaining schedule compared to Spurs’ main rivals and came to the conclusion that the north London club had one of the easier schedules left.
Now you can say there are no easy wins in the Premier League. And while that’s true, no one can complain with having favorable match-ups for the remaining 12 fixtures than difficult games to contest in.
Related Story: Tottenham's Schedule Easiest Among Competition
Spurs are going to be playing six home matches officially to end the 2016-17 Premier League campaign. Although if you include cross-town trips to Crystal Palace and West Ham, Tottenham will be staying in London for eight matches.
Home fixtures by itself are good if teams can maintain a winning record. And for Spurs, they’re unbeaten in 13 attempts with 11 wins and two draws.
Tottenham have scored 30 goals while conceding five. They’re averaging 2.3 goals per game and conceding 0.4 goals per game at home.
Literally, Mauricio Pochettino’s side is a goalscoring machine inside the confines of White Hart Lane while also being an impenetrable wall against some high-scoring teams.
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Chelsea have scored 55 goals this season but lost 2-0 to Spurs. Manchester City have scored 51 goals but also lost 2-0 to Spurs. Liverpool has tallied 51 goals but drew 1-1 with Spurs.
All of this is to say that, along with Tottenham’s offense and defense playing at their best at home, White Hart Lane is a difficult place for opponents to play in.
As Spurs’ unbeaten home record can attest to, the only club to go unbeaten at home this season.
It’s why Eric Dier believes Spurs must take full advantage with the slate of home games left to end the season.
That even with a 10-point gap separating Spurs from Chelsea, a good run of form at home — like it has been for the entire season up to this point — is critical to end the year off with a top four finish.
"“It’s really important that we keep our home record the way it is,” Dier told Spurs’ official website. “It’s been very good so far, we’ve got a great crowd and I think we have a fantastic connection with them because of the way we play so we just need to keep going with all these important matches coming up.”“We’ve got to carry on playing in the same way and hopefully keep our good record at home in the next few games.”“I think it’s obviously a factor. The crowd really gets behind us and we’ve been really good this season at home,” Eric Dier said when asked if the home crowd has played a key role in Spurs going unbeaten at White Hart Lane this season.“We’ve got a great record and now the aim is to keep that going until the end of the season.”"
Next: Tottenham Can Learn from Everton's Win over Man City
The home fixtures that happened earlier in the season are now in the past. What matters more now is how Spurs fair in their upcoming home games.
Still, there’s reason to believe that Spurs’ unbeaten home run can continue from now until the end of the year if they stick to their gameplan and execute it perfectly.
A back three system intent on fully attacking the opposition and not giving them enough breathing room to attack Spurs’ defense.